UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has released their latest report on Internet users across the world. According to it, there will be almost 3 billion internet users globaly with nearly two-thirds coming from developing countries like India by end of 2014. On the other hand mobile broadband subscriptions too have seen a steep rise and will reach 2.3 billion.

Internet user penetration is roughly 40 per cent globally, 78 percent in developed countries and 32 percent in developing countries. More than 90 per cent of the people who are not yet using the Internet are from the developing world.

Here is the graph that shows how ICT has grown globaly. The figures below show penetration of ICT services per 100 inhabitants.

Mobile Cellular Subscriptions

When it comes to cellular subscriptions, 95.5 percent of global citizens now use mobile phones. The developed countries in Europe and Americas have 124.7 & 109.9 percent penetration, which means at an average there are more cellular subscriptions than people.

On the other hand in Africa, the penetration of mobile phones per 100 inhabitants is only 69.3 and for Asia it is 89.2.

According to the ITU report, mobile subscriptions will reach almost 7 billion by end 2014, and 3.6 billion of these will be in the Asia-Pacific region. The developing countries will account for 78 percent of world total.

However, Mobile subscriptions growth seems to have saturated globaly. It grew by only 2.6% this year.

Fixed Telephone Subscriptions

Fixed telephone subscriptions are now out of favour. By end of 2014, the world will have 100 million fewer fixed telephone subscriptions than their were in 2009.

Broadband Subscriptions (Fixed)

Fixed line broadband subscriptions are showing steady growth with 711 million users globaly expected by end of 2014. Compared to 2009, this is 243 million more fixed broadband internet users.

44 percent of all fixed-broadband subscriptions are in Asia and the Pacific, and 25 percent are in Europe. In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of the world’s fixed-broadband subscriptions

Broadband Subscriptions Mobile

Mobile broadband subscriptions (3G, 4G) have shown the greatest growth over past 5 years, with nearly 2.3 billion using internet on their mobile. Less than 3.5 percent global citizens had mobile broadband in 2007.

The growth in mobile broadband has mostly come from the developed in last 5 years, but in next five years, it will be developing world that will have mobile broadband users.

By end of 2014, 83.7 percent of the developed world will be mobile broadband subscriber. The same figure for developing world is currently only only at 21.1 percent, with world average of 32 percent.

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin and Facebook.Arun’s Google+ Profile